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Magazine
In the April 14 SN: Killer heat, mass insect migrations, the latest Saturn updates, rethinking the Nobel Prize, tectonics on Venus, the science of mass shootings, ancient tool trends and more.
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News
Newer drugs make hepatitis C-positive kidneys safe for transplant
03/08/2018 - 15:30 Health, Clinical TrialsPeople who received kidneys from donors infected with hepatitis C did not become ill with the virus, thanks to treatment with newer drugs that can cure the disease, a small study reports.
Ten patients not previously infected with hepatitis C took doses of powerful antiviral medications before and after receiving the transplants. None of the patients developed chronic infections,...
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News
In the future, an AI may diagnose eye problems
03/04/2018 - 08:00 Artificial Intelligence, Clinical Trials, BiomedicineThe computer will see you now.
Artificial intelligence algorithms may soon bring the diagnostic know-how of an eye doctor to primary care offices and walk-in clinics, speeding up the detection of health problems and the start of treatment, especially in areas where specialized doctors are scarce. The first such program — trained to spot symptoms of diabetes-related vision loss in eye...
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News
To hear the beat, your brain may think about moving to it
02/16/2018 - 10:49 Neuroscience, Clinical TrialsIf you’ve ever felt the urge to tap along to music, this research may strike a chord.
Recognizing rhythms doesn’t involve just parts of the brain that process sound — it also relies on a brain region involved with movement, researchers report online January 18 in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. When an area of the brain that plans movement was disabled temporarily, people...
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Context
Philosophical critique exposes flaws in medical evidence hierarchies
11/13/2017 - 14:30 Science & Society, Clinical Trials, BiomedicineImmanuel Kant was famous for writing critiques.
He earned his status as the premier philosopher of modern times with such works as Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Practical Reason and Critique of Judgment. It might have been helpful for medical science if he had also written a critique of evidence.
Scientific research supposedly provides reliable evidence for physicians to...
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News
A potential drug found in a sea creature can now be made efficiently in the lab
10/12/2017 - 17:47 Chemistry, Biomedicine, Clinical TrialsA seaweed-like marine invertebrate contains a molecule that has piqued interest as a drug but is in short supply: Collecting 14 tons of the critters, a type of bryozoan, yields just 18 grams of the potential medicine. Now, an efficient lab recipe might make bryostatin 1 easier to get.
Making more of the molecule could help scientists figure out whether the drug — which has shown mixed...
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News
Getting a flu ‘shot’ could soon be as easy as sticking on a Band-Aid
06/28/2017 - 16:30 Biomedicine, Health, Clinical TrialsDIY vaccination may be on its way. In the first test in adults, a Band-Aid‒like patch studded with dissolving microneedles safely and effectively delivered a dose of influenza vaccine.
People using the patch had a similar immune response to the flu vaccine as those who received a typical flu shot, researchers report online June 27 in the Lancet. And nearly all of the patch users...
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News
DNA may offer rapid road to Zika vaccine
02/28/2017 - 07:00 Health, Clinical TrialsLast August, scientists injected a potential vaccine for Zika virus into a human being — just 3½ months after they had decided exactly what molecular recipe to use.
In the world of vaccine development, 3½ months from design to injection is “warp speed,” says vaccine researcher Nelson Michael of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Md. Clinical trials can take...
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Science Ticker
Ebola vaccine proves effective, final trial results show
12/22/2016 - 18:30 Clinical Trials, HealthAn experimental Ebola vaccine has triumphed in West Africa.
Of 5,837 people in Guinea who received a single shot of the vaccine, rVSV-ZEBOV, in the shoulder, none became infected with the virus 10 to 84 days after vaccination. That’s “100% protection,” researchers report December 22 in the Lancet.
World Health Organization researcher Ana Maria Henao-Restrepo and colleagues tested...
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News in Brief
Ebola vaccine proves effective
12/22/2016 - 18:30 Clinical Trials, HealthAn experimental Ebola vaccine has triumphed in West Africa.
Of 5,837 people in Guinea and Sierra Leone who received a single shot of the vaccine, rVSV-ZEBOV, none became infected with the virus 10 to 84 days after vaccination. That’s 100 percent protection, researchers report online December 22 in the Lancet.
World Health Organization researcher Ana Maria Henao-Restrepo and...
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Editor's Note
Scientific success depends on finding light in darkness
Without light, we cannot see. That’s why “dark galaxies” have eluded astronomers for so long. Two years ago, these star-starved entities were virtually unknown. But scientists now have better ways of seeing, even in dim conditions. New telescopes that can detect the faint light from these mysterious galaxies have enabled scientists to chalk up a considerable list: Dark galaxies seem...11/30/2016 - 14:17 Astronomy, Clinical Trials, Animals